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way as we study a novel or a poem in English Literature. It also means that, if we agree with Nietzsches view of philosophy, we should look out for these more literary aspects of other philosophical texts in order to see how arguments that appear to be purely rational are often expressed using language that is rich in metaphors and strong feeling.
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and meaning. Now suppose that scientists found proof for the theory that all conscious life was created by a big bang, an event that has nothing to do with loving purpose or design. This theory may be more true than belief in God, but would it be better? Might it not be the case that scientific truths make life harder to bear, make people more unhappy, and undermine the value of our existence? As Nietzsche says, the truth may be that nature is wasteful beyond measure, indifferent beyond measure, without purposes and consideration, without mercy and justice, fertile and desolate and uncertain at the same time 5 - but who would want to live their life according to such a truth? It is because this truth is so harsh and difficult to live with that people invent myths, stories, pictures, and a whole variety of different interpretations, to give meaning and value to existence. The question we have to ask when we choose to accept a particular interpretation is not, is it true? , but will it make me stronger? Nietzsches view that the truth may be undesirable suggests that he is not attempting to abandon the notion of truth altogether. Rather, by questioning the value of truth he is undermining its claims to authority over us, and its claims to be absolute. For Nietzsche there is no such thing as the truth, objective and independent of ourselves; each person is entitled to their own truth, discoverable only from their particular perspective, but Nietzsche warns against the attempt to impose this truth onto others. He envisages philosophers of the future who, although they continue to be friends of the truth, will certainly not be dogmatists. 6 We may, of course, want to question whether a truth that is valid only for a particular individual can really be called truth at all - surely in order to use the word truth we need to use some criteria to distinguish it from falsehood? And what, from Nietzsches point of view, might such criteria be? One possible problem with Nietzsches perspectivism is that it is reflexive: that is, it refers back to itself and so cannot claim to be true for anyone other than Nietzsche himself. However, Nietzsche would no doubt view this as a strength rather than as a weakness of his philosophy, and would reply to critics of his perspectivism that my judgment is my judgment: no one else is easily entitled to it great things remain for the great. 7 In his other books (notably The Gay Science) Nietzsche argues that, although science takes its rigorous pursuit of objective truth from the moral command to be always truthful, this scientific project has in the end destroyed belief in the God who once provided the authority that enforced moral values. In other words, Christian teaching, taken to its rational conclusion, eventually undermines itself. This idea is summed up in Nietzsches famous proclamation that God is dead... and we have killed him. 8 Nietzsche intends this claim as a statement of fact, perhaps a prophecy, rather than as a cry of either triumph or lament. The death of God, indeed, represents both a danger and an opportunity. The danger is that the disappearance of the traditional source of value and meaning will give Europe the final push into nihilism; but this also provides the opportunity to create new values in place of the old religious ones, so that each individual assumes the role of a god by becoming the source of his or her own values. Since Nietzsche believes that truths and values have always been invented by human beings, there is something honest and courageous about this new era that dawns after the death of God, as if we are finally facing up to the way things are.
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makes a virtue out of necessity, turning weakness into a moral value and expecting everyone to conform to it. According to Nietzsche, the ethical teachings of the Jewish law and, even more so, of Christianity, spring from this thirst for vengeance exercised by the weak upon the strong: moral judgments and condemnations constitute the favourite revenge of the spiritually limited against those less limited. 11 This interpretation of morality is often misunderstood, so we must clarify a few important points before we can begin to judge and debate it. Nietzsches description of the evolution of morals may be more or less accurate, but it should be read not as a factual historical account but as a myth that emphasises that values change through time rather than being intrinsic to some sort of eternal human nature. Indeed, as soon as Nietzsche introduces his distinction between master and slave moralities in Beyond Good and Evil, he makes it clear that these two types are often combined within one society, and even in the same human being, within a single soul. 12 This helps to explain why morality, which is often assumed to be rational and coherent, usually turns out to be quite contradictory in the real world, for real human beings. We must also be clear that Nietzsche is not arguing for a return to the values of a barbaric, primitive culture; he recognises that the development of morality has created more civilised, more complex and more profound societies, and that this has empowered humanity as a whole. He admires not so much the cruelty and violence of the masters, but the affirmative, creative origins of their values; and he is critical of the reactive nature of slave morality rather than of particular virtues such as compassion and mercy - although he also emphasises that these virtues are hypocritical in so far as they conceal a desire for power and revenge. Just as Nietzsche argues that truth fails by its own standards, so he suggests that morality rests on a corrupt foundation.
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Ubermensch, or higher man; the attitude of amor fati, or love of fate; and the rather obscure doctrine of the eternal recurrence. Since only the eternal recurrence is mentioned in Beyond Good and Evil, I shall end my discussion of the text by considering what this may involve. The idea of eternal recurrence was originally an ancient Greek philosophical theory, and it struck Nietzsche with the force of a life-changing revelation one day as he stood contemplating a large rock by the side of an Alpine lake. Instead of viewing time as a linear progression, the doctrine of eternal recurrence teaches that every moment repeats itself continually throughout eternity. This idea may be extremely difficult to grasp, but its significance for Nietzsche is relatively straightforward: if someone was faced with the thought that every moment of her life would recur eternally, could she accept this happily, without fear or regret? To do so, suggests Nietzsche, would be the ultimate affirmation of the value of life the absolute opposite, in fact, of the longing for death and for another world beyond this one that, he claims, characterises Platonism and Christianity. Nietzsche describes the eternal recurrence as the ideal of the most high-spirited, alive, and worldaffirming human being who has not only come to terms and learned to get along with whatever was and is, but who wants to have what was and is repeated into all eternity. 13 We must add here that this expresses no naive optimism on Nietzsches part: he himself endured great mental and physical suffering throughout his life, and he claimed that the joyful acceptance of eternal recurrence was possible only for those who had also faced the abyss of despair. It is this despair, indeed, that makes the total affirmation of life so great and rare an achievement. Claire Carlisle Manchester Metropolitan University
Further Reading
Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals (Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks, 1998) Nietzsche, The Gay Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (London: Penguin Books, 1961) Paul Strathern, The Essential Nietzsche (London: Virgin Books, 2002) Michael Tanner, Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks, 2001) Arthur Danto, Nietzsche as Philosopher (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980) Don Cupitt, The Sea of Faith (London: SCM Press, 1994) Alexander Nehamas, Nietzsche: Life as Literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990)
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See, for example, Arthur Danto, Nietzsche as Philosopher, 68-99. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, section 1; section 16. 3 ibid, section 4. 4 The following example is not Nietzsches, but it raises issues that Nietzsche discusses frequently throughout his writing. 5 Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, section 9; see also section 39.
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ibid, section 43. ibid, section 43. 8 See Nietzsches The Gay Science, section 125. 9 Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Preface. 10 ibid, section 43. 11 ibid, section 219. 12 ibid, section 260. 13 ibid, section 56. See also The Gay Science, section 341, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Chapter Three, The Convalescent.
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